Unchecked, meetings can be a superfluous time suck. While it's possible to have better than average ones, try setting at least one day per week aside with a complete meeting ban.

The idea is that, at least from the perspective of those doing regular creative or productive work, meetings are an interruption. An abnormality to the normal workflow that throws everything off. Managers can sometimes handle this because meetings are their job, but every meeting has to be weighed against the productivity it kills:

When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That's no problem for someone on the manager's schedule. There's always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker's schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it.

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Of course, if you're not a manager, there's only so much you can do to dictate meeting schedules. If you're in a situation where your workflow is being interrupted on a daily basis, talk to your bosses to see if your company can institute a no-meeting day policy.